The Ultimate Baby Gift: 7 Survival Kits for New Parents

Obviously, we’re all striving for that top right quadrant: a gift that is both cute (thus fun to give) and useful (will make it out of its packaging).

But the reality is that new parents, more often than not, wind up with all of the cute stuff — like three dozen pairs of baby socks that look like little sneakers — and none of the stuff they actually need. And trust us: the short-lived delight of giving tiny, semi-ironic baby socks will be radically eclipsed by the satisfaction that you’ve given a friend something that’ll be indispensable over the coming months.

So we bring you weeSpring’s guide to practical gift giving: survival kits for almost every new-baby-need. We pulled the items from our weeLists, which are weeSpring parents’ own individual lists of what got them through all of the different ages and stages. You can stick with our suggestions, or customize your own survival kit by clicking through to see what parents swear by. The “basics” suggestions all come out to about $40 per kit, and all of them have a printable (and pretty cute, if we do say so ourselves) enclosure card.

Ally Downey is the founder and CEO of weeSpring. She's also the author of Here's the Plan: Your Practical, Tactical Guide to Advancing Your Career During Pregnancy and Parenthood. You can follow her on Twitter at @allysondowney.

Whoa! This is cool, especially the metrix diagram. Honestly, I never know what special gifts to give to my wife with our new baby. I don’t think I’m a romantic man after all. But this is great. Let’s see if she’s gonna love one of those products in the top right.